Shellshock: Nam ’67 (PlayStation 2)

Shellshock takes you back to the years of the Vietnam war. You take on the role of a rookie soldier on his first tour of duty. Using a third-person perspective, you experience napalm bombardments of civilian villages, sneaky night missions along the river banks, claustrophobic tunnel systems and huge battles in temples and open fields. Most missions are played as a team, but your team members cannot die and do not influence the mission objectives. You will have to assassinate enemy generals, take out crucial boats and guide your team through unknown territory.

The game does not have drivable vehicles, multiplayer options or extensive environmental interaction, but it features a particular system of dismantling the many bombs and traps: in a race against time, you have to perform a long key sequence in the correct order to clear the path. The atrocities on both sides are clearly shown in the cutscenes, filmed as through a shaky hand-camera. Either side is not afraid to abuse civilians for their cause and this sense of realism gives the game a rather raw edge. You can even purchase the services of hookers in the base camp.